


Language Lessons

by The_Mouse_of_Anon



Series: AquaFan Week (Devilfish Ahoy!) [5]
Category: Teen Titans (Comics), Young Justice (Cartoon)
Genre: AquaFan Week 2016, Day 5: Languages, Eddie butchering the Atlantean language, La'gaan puts up with so much, M/M, especially with a friend, learning foreign languages is fun, pre-Devilfish, unless that friend (who you are kind of having feelings for) is butchering the language on purpose, use of Atlantean actually accurate to Young Justice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-01-09
Updated: 2017-01-09
Packaged: 2018-09-15 23:08:06
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9262739
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/The_Mouse_of_Anon/pseuds/The_Mouse_of_Anon
Summary: “You are officially the weirdest person ever. You can say each of the words in that sentence without any problem, but the moment you try to string them together you can’t pronounce anything right.”"It's a talent?"La'gaan might or might not have regretted agreeing to help Eddie learn Atlantean.((Written for Day 5 of AquaFan Week 2016.))





	

**Author's Note:**

> Not gonna lie, I had loooooads of fun when I was writing this one (and I got to slip in a little of my 'English is the weirdest damned language ever,' so that didn't hurt any). The Atlantean used in this fic is 100% accurate to the animated Young Justice and the tie-in comics, because I'm a language-nerd like that.
> 
> This one takes place somewhere between _Underwater in the Dark_ and _Tattoos: A Conversation_. (I know, the fics for this series keep skipping around in the timeline. I'll probably have the order listed at the end of the seventh fic.)
> 
>  **EDIT:** I just got the third book of the tie-in comics and found out that _anankē_ should have been written _anagkē_ (it shows up in the comics as ANAΓKH), so I fixed it in the name of accuracy. Proof I am a language nerd. lol

“You are officially the weirdest person ever,” La’gaan grumbled at Eddie. “You can say each of the words in that sentence without any problem, but the moment you try to string them together you can’t pronounce anything right.”

Eddie shrugged. “It’s a talent? Besides, I’ve only been learning Atlantean for a few months. You’ve been learning English for _years_. I think a few manglings are forgivable.”

La’gaan rolled his eyes. He was tempted to say that he didn’t know why he was even bothering to help Eddie with his pronunciation, but the fact was that in their random back-and-forth language lessons Eddie could usually pull a laugh or two from him. And there was the bonus that Eddie got to learn a lot of the less formalized varieties of Atlantean while La’gaan got reasonably coherent explanations of idioms and how to pronounce some of the weirder words in English. (The fact that English had random French, Latin, Spanish, and German words— along with words from who knew how many other languages— had nearly given La’gaan a headache when he found out. It also explained why English was so screwed up.)

“That would be like me not being able to say ‘the pot is on the stove’ without sounding like I was trying to talk through a tube while gargling salt water,” La’gaan retorted.

“Oh come on! I’m not _that_ bad!” Eddie protested.

“You’re bad enough to make me want to strangle a camel.”

Eddie arched an eyebrow. “A camel? Really? You didn’t even know what a camel _was_ last week.”

“At least it has a neck.”

“And _I’m_ the weird one. Is it because most ‘fish in the sea’ don’t have necks?”

La’gaan shook his head. “I’m not even dignifying that pun.”

“Right, because you’ve cornered the market on fish-puns,” Eddie grinned.

“Shut up and say the damned sentence already.”

“Fiiiiine,” Eddie jokingly whined before proceeding to utterly destroy the sentence. “ _Seih ekko anannkegh._ ”

La’gaan facepalmed. “That was just _painful_. Just… _How_ do you screw up saying ‘I need you’ _that badly_?!”

Eddie huffed as he crossed his arms. “I’m honestly trying. Come on. At least I’m not doing it on purpose, like the way Bart keeps butchering Spanish around Jaime.”

La’gaan shuddered at the thought. “If you do that, I’m hurting you.”

Eddie held up his hands placatingly. “I promise I’m not butchering it on purpose.”

“Are you _sure_? Because you’re a smartass. I don’t know if I can trust you to _not_ be a smartass.”

“I swear!” Eddie laughed.

“Fine. Let’s try _again_. And _try_ to get it right this time.”

“Hot damn, I get another chance.”

Sometimes La’gaan wished Eddie didn’t have such a rampant sense of humor. “Just repeat after me, fish-guts-for-brains,” he said in a long-suffering tone.

“I’m listening.”

“ _Se-_ ”

“ _Se-_ ”

“ _-echō-_ ”

“ _-echō-_ ”

“ _-anagkē._ ”

“ _-anangkē._ ”

“No, _anagkē_.”

“ _Ana_ \- shit… _anagkē_.”

“ _Anagkē_ ,” La’gaan repeated.

“Right. _Anagkē._ ”

“Now put it together.”

“ _Se ekcho anantkē._ ”

La’gaan glowered at Eddie for a moment or two. Eddie looked like he was about to crack up. “You did that on purpose.”

“…Maybe.”

La’gaan gave an aggravated sigh. He _refused_ to let Eddie know that he was amused. “You know what? _Se echō anagkē_ to shut up.” He wasn’t surprised when Eddie started laughing.


End file.
